Clean energy must wait for money

By Adam Morton and Chris Hammer

14 May 2008 — 12:00am

CLEAN energy industries such as solar, wind and hot rocks will have to wait for a promised $500 million renewable energy fund, with none of it to be spent next financial year and less than half before 2012.

But a fund for "clean coal" technology  experimental work that captures carbon dioxide as it is emitted and then pumped kilometres underground  starts slowly but immediately.

Despite scientists warning that action on climate change is needed now, the Government will have spent just $158.4 million of a promised $500 million on "clean coal" research, and even less ($55.5 million) of the clean energy fund before the 2010 election.

The comparative funding rates will anger sections of the environmental lobby, some of which turned on the WWF and Climate Institute last month when the two groups joined the coal industry and the miners' union, the CFMEU, in supporting "clean coal" funding.

Critics argue that carbon capture and storage is speculative and should be funded by heavy-polluting power companies.

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Calls by the WWF/Climate Institute/coal alliance for a national taskforce into "clean coal" went unanswered.

The budget devotes $2.3 billion to tackling climate change  the most ever. Nearly all of it has been announced previously and much of the spending has been pushed back.

Money for "clean coal" and renewable energy extends well into the next decade. Critics will argue that the slow rollout of money for renewable energy puts a greater onus on business to take the lead on the Government's ambitious pre-election target of making one-fifth of all energy come from renewable sources by 2020.

As expected, hardly any of the money goes to what will be the centrepiece of the Government's bid to cut greenhouse emissions, and the biggest shake-up of the economy in 20 years: the introduction from 2010 of an emissions trading scheme, forcing business to pay for the right to generate greenhouse pollution. Details of the scheme will come after veteran economist Ross Garnaut and Treasury report back later this year.

Other promises fulfilled in the budget include:

■ $240 million over four years to help businesses cut emissions and save water.

■ $150 million over three years to help countries in Australia's region adapt to climate change.

■ $130 million over four years to help farmers deal with climate change.

■ Low-interest "green loans" of up to $10,000 for up to 200,000 households to install solar, water and energy efficient products, costing $300 million over five years.

■ Rebates of up to $500 for landlords to install insulation to cut renters' energy bills, costing $150 million over five years.